I 


Calendar No. 52. 


63d Congress, ) 

SENATE. 

j Report 

1st Session. | 


( No. 64. 


WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 


June 13, 1913.—Ordered to be printed. 


Mr. Ashurst, from the Committee on Woman Suffrage, submitted 

the following 

REPOET. 

[To accompany S. J. Res. 1.] 

The Senate Committee on AYoman Suffrage, having under consid¬ 
eration Senate joint resolution No. 1, introduced by Mr. Chamberlain, 
to wit: 

• JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States extending 

the right of suffrage to women. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled {two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following 
article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of the said 
legislatures, shall be valid as part of said Constitution, namely: 

“Article —. 

“Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied 
or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. 

“Sec. 2. The Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the 
provisions of this article.” 

By direction of a majority of the committee the resolution is 
reported favorably and with the recommendation that it do pass. 
The question of granting to women the elective francliise being one 
of far-reaching consequences and vast importance, involving the 
pohtical rights of one-half of the citizens of the United States, the 
committee (notwithstanding the able arguments on this subject and 
exhaustive reports which have been submitted to Congress from time 
to time since 1866) took the view that a full and complete hearing 
should be had; whereupon a number of eminent persons addressed 
the committee in support of and against the resolution. 

PROGRESS. 

Observant persons will not fail to notice that marked changes in 
political and social conditions in the United States are now taking 








2 


WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 




I 


place; that the conditions under wliich we have been living are 
rapidly changing, and that many, if not most, of the American 
people now recognize that society and government are dynamic, 
not static in character. It is not necessary, in the scope of tliis 
report, to discuss all the causes of these changes, but it will not be 
denied that some of the contributing causes thereof are the adoption 
of improved means of transportation; the ready communication 
among the people afforded by the telephone, the telegraph, the post 
offices, and the excellent facilities for obtaining education and the 
transmission of inteffigence afforded by the schools, the newspapers, 
and the magazines. 

Some statesmen, publicists, and editors deplore the fact that we 
are now living in an age of inquiry, criticism, and searcliing analysis, 
but fortunately the country realizes that smug contentment is a 
corrosive effluent, deadly to the progress, advancement, and happiness 
of a nation. A people free from the exigencies of life—free from the 
desire to bring about a betterment of conditions—lose that keen in¬ 
centive to improvement which adds so much zest, beauty, and grace 
to life. 

History is largely an account of man's struggle for freedom, and 
from the beginning of the human race, down to the present time, its 
tendency has been toward liberty—-mankind reachmg out for free¬ 
dom and immeasurably attaining it. 

American civil liberty is the fruitage of many centuries of earnest 
and patriotic endeavor. The preservation of civil liberty will always 
depend upon the vigilance and zeal of those who love freedom, and 
if a people do not love liberty well enough to contend for it, if a people 
prefer turgid quietude to the boisterousness of liberty they may be 
sure that the usurpers of power will sooner or later impose tyramiies 
and despotism upon them. 


CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 

Only a short time since some of the wisest and most profound citi¬ 
zens of this Republic believed that by reason of the complicated pro¬ 
cedure and large majorities required, it was difficult, if not impossible, 
to amend the Constitution of the United States, and some eminent 
statesmen even urged that strained constructions should be placed 
upon the Constitution so as to change somewhat the structure of our 
political system, bring it into conformity with the dynamic conditions 
of the day, and thus secure needful reforms. 

Dicey says of amending the Constitution of the United States: 

The sovereign of the United States has been roused to serious action but once during 
the course of 90 years. It needed the thunder of the Civil War to break his repose, 
and it may be doubted whether anything short of impending revolution will ever 
again rouse him to activity. But a monarch who slumbers for years is like a monarch 
who does not exist. 

Speaking in the Senate of the United States on the 5th day of July, 
1909, Hon. H. D. Money, who was a close observer of men and events, 
a statesman whose memory this Nation reveres, a scholar, thinker, 
and orator whose services here added glory and usefulness to this 
body, said: 


D. OF D. 
1913 



WOMAN SUFFEAGE. 


3 


Mr. President, I am one of those who believe that there never will be another 
amendment to the Constitution of the United States. * * * I do not believe 
this amendment (income-tax amendment) to the Constitution will ever be a part 
V of it * * *. 


But contrary to the opinion which a few years since prevailed 
among many thinking people, within the past five months two 
amendments to the Constitution of the United States have been pro¬ 
claimed, and they were adopted under the procedure which is indis¬ 
putably complicated and involved. The adoption of these amend¬ 
ments, in addition to the valuable reforms they will bring about, has 
convinced the American people that our Federal Constitution is a 
living, breathing, dynamic force that protects persons as well as 
property, and that it is not a procrustean bed of fixity incapable of 
amendment or change. 

During the Sixty-second Congress, from December 4, 1911, to 
December 4, 1912, 21 amendments were proposed to the Constitution 
of the United States, and the feeling that the Constitution may bn 
amended is not confined to any one political party. To this date, 
during the Sixty-third Congress, 14 proposals to amend the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States have been introduced in the Senate and 
32 proposals in the House of Representatives, demonstrating that 
the ^Tet-alone,” noninterference, careless, laisser faire policy does not 
meet the demand of the present day. 


•* New occasions teach new duties, 

Time makes ancient good uncouth, 

They must upward still and onward 
Who would keep abreast of truth. 

Lo, before us gleam her camp fires; 

We ourselves must Pilgrims be, 

Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly 
Through the desperate winter sea. 

Nor attempt the future portals 
With the past’s blood-rusted key.” 

But it can not fairly be argued that the proposed constitutional 
amendment which provides that the rights of citizens of the United 
States shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any 
State, by reason of sex, is a new, ^‘novel,” or '‘radical” movement, 
for every phase of this subject has been discussed from time to time 
by many of the ablest minds of the Nation. It has been considered 
in its relation to the Constitution, and constitutional law bearing upon 
such polity has been given earnest and careful consideration. 

On July 2, 1776, two days before the Declaration of Independence 
was signed. New Jersey, in her first State constitution, enfranchised 
the women by changing the words of her provincial charter from 
"Male freeholders worth fifty pounds” to "afe inhabitants worth fifty 
pounds,” and for 31 years the women of that State voted. 


4 


WOMAN SUFFEAGE 


1 

GAINS IN EQUAL SUFFKAGE. | 


Eighty years ago women could not vote anywhere, except to a very 
limited extent in Sweden and in a few other places in the Old World. 


Time. 


Place. 


Kind of suffrage. 


1838 

Kentucky. 

1850 

Ontario. 

1861 

Kansas. 

1867 

New South Wales. 

1869 

England. 

Victoria. 


Wyoming. 

1871 

West Australia. 

1875 

Michigan... 

Minnesota. 

1876 

Colorado. 

1877 

New Zealand. 

1878 

New Hampshire. 

Oregon.... 

1879 

Massachusetts. 

1880 

New York. 

Vermont. 


South Australia. 

1881 

Scotland.‘. 

Isle of Man. 

1883 

Nebraska. 

1884 

Ontario. 

Tasmania. 

1886 

New Zealand. 

New Brunswick. 

1887 

Kansas. 

Nova Scotia. 


Manitoba. 


North Dakota. 


South Dakota. 


Montana. 


Arizona. 


New Jersey. 


Montana. 

1888 

England. 


British Columbia.. 


Northwest Territory. 

1889 

Scotland. 


Province of Quebec. 

1891 

Illinois. 

1893 

Connecticut. 

< 

Colorado. 


New Zealand. 

1894 

Ohio. 


Iowa. 


England. 

1895 

South Australia. 

1896 

Utah. 


Idaho. 

1898 

Ireland. 


Minnesota. 


Delaware. 


France. 


Louisiana. 

1900 

W isconsin. 


West Australia.... 

1901 

New York. 


Norway.... 

1902 

Australia. 


New South Wales... . 

1903 

Kansas. 


Tasmania. 

1905 

Queensland. 

1906 

Finland. 

1907 

Norway. 


Sweden. 


Denmark. 


England. 


Oklahoma. 


School suffrage to widows with children of school 
age. 

School suffrage, women married and single. 

School suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage, single women and widows. 
Municipal suffrage, married and single women. 

Full suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage. 

School suffrage. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Municipal suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage to the single women and wid¬ 
ows. 

Parliamentary suffrage. 

School suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

School suffrage. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Tax-paying suffrage. 

County suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage. 

Do. 

County suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage, single women and widows. 
School suffrage. 

Do. 

Full suffrage. 

Do. 

School suffrage. 

Bond suffrage. 

Parish and district suffrage, married and single 
women. 

Full State suffrage. 

Full suffrage. 

Do. 

All offices except Members of Parliament. 

Library trustees. 

School suffrage to tax-paying women. 

Women engaged in commerce can vote for judges 
of the tribunal of commerce. 

Tax-paying suffrage. 

School suffrage. 

Full State suffrage. 

Tax-paying suffrage; local taxation in all towns and 
villages of the State. 

Municipal suffrage. 

Full suffrage. 

Full State suffrage. 

Bond suffrage. 

Full State suffrage. 

Do. 

Full suffrage; eligible to all offices. 

Full parliamentary suffrage to the 300,000 women 
who already had municipal suffrage. 

Eligible to municipal offices. 

Can vote for members of boards of public charities, 
and serve on such boards. 

Eligible as mayors, aldermen, and county and town 
councilors. 

New State continued school suffrage for women. 















































































WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 


5 


_\ 

Time. 

I Place. 

Kind of suffrage. 

1908 

Michigan. 

Taxpayers to vote on questions of local taxation and 
granting of franchises. 

Women who are taxpayers or wives of taxpayers 
vote for all officers except members of Parliament. 

Full State suffrage. 

Can vote for members of the counseils des prud- 
hommes, and also eligible. 

Single women and widows paying taxes were given 
a vole. 

Tax-paying women, a vote on all municipal ques¬ 
tions. 

Full suffrage. 

School suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage made universal. (Three-fifths 
of the women had it before.) 

Parliamentary vote to women owning a certain 
amount of real estate. 

Suffrage to the women of its capital city, Laibach. - 

Women of his dominions vote in municipal elec¬ 
tions. 

Women engaged in agriculture vote for members of 
the chamber of agriculture; also eligible. 

Women in all towns, villages, and third-class cities 
vote on bonding propositions. 

Full suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage in capital city, Belize. 

Parliamentary suffrage for women over 25 years. 

Full suffrage. 

Do. 


Denmark. 


Victoria. 

1909 

Belgium. 


Province of Voralberg (Austrian Tyrol). 

G inter Park, Va. 

1910 

Washington. 

New Mexico. 


Norway. 


Bosnia. 


Diet of the Crown Prince of Krain (Austria).. 
India (Gaekwar of Baroda). 


Wurtemberg, Kingdom of. 


New York. 

1911 

California. 

Honduras. 


Iceland. 

1912 

Oregon. 

1912 

Arizona. 

1912 

Kansas. 

Do. 

1913 

Alaska. 

Do. 



We do not feel called upon, in this report, to discuss (if indeed it 
be debatable) the question as to the equality or inequality of the two 
sexes from an intellectual standpoint. It is, or at least ought to be, 
an axiom of American liberty that a class of persons obedient to the 
laws as are the women; a class which has a peculiar care for the rights 
of others; a class which is taxed upon its labor and property for the 
support of the Government; which is liable to punishment for acts 
which the law makes criminal; which is patriotic, learned, and in a 
large measure capable of the highest degree of efficiency in the useful 
arts and sciences; which is patient beyond estimate and constantly 
pouring forth costly sacrifices for the common good of the species, 
should not he denied a voice in the enactment and enforcement of laws 
and concerns of the Government. 

^‘Government is simply a tool in the hands of the peojde for the 
fashioning of that people’s civilization.” Government is strong or 
weak,' capable or deficient, according to the people who control and 
make up that Government. In this Republic the people constitute 
the Government. They are its creators and its maintenance; they 
are the Government. That the granting of the elective franchise to 
women would add to the strength, efficiency, justice, and fairness of 
government we have not the slightest doubt, and this is especially 
true in the United States where all power is reposed in the people 
with universal suffrage as the primal basis of its exercise. “The 
people” includes women who can not be denied those political priv¬ 
ileges and responsibilities which men claim and assert for themselves 
without doing violence to the fundamental principles of our 
Government. 

It is anomalous and archaic, in a free Republic, professedly made 
up of, controlled hy, and administered for all the people to deny to 
one-half of its citizens the right of exercising a valuable function of 
citizenship, to wit, the elective franchise, and thus preclude that 
































6 


WOMAN SUFFEAGE. 


\ 


one-half from the right and power to say what law or poaty shall be 
its rule of conduct. And this anomaly becomes odious and abhor¬ 
rent when we reflect that the particular one-half of citizenship thus 
excluded is the identical one-half from which springs so much wis¬ 
dom, courage, cheer, hope, and good counsel. In this Republic we 
are in constant warfare against fraud and violence, avarice and 
cupidity, and in behalf of liberty and justice whose success will be 
accelerated by extending the franchise to wornen, in whom the 
materialistic is generally submerged for the idealistic; a class of voters 
which looks to all laws and movements as to how such laws and 
movements will affect her children; how such laws and conditions 
will promote morals, human health, and human progress, more 
especially than as to how this or that particular law or polity will 
develop or serve material or property interests. In other words, as 
has been said, ‘‘Man looks after the affairs of life, but wmman looks 
after life itself.” 

Woman’s sphere, her ideals and her duties, make her the inescapable 
and essential conservator of human life, charged as she is with the 
duty of conserving the human race; and it is in harmony with political 
and natural justice to accord to her the right to say what laws shall 
assist her in bringing about the betterment of economic conditions. 

AMEEICAN CITIZENS. 

This question as to who is an American citizen was left somewhat 
in doubt by the Constitution of the United States until the adoption 
of the fourteenth amendment in 1868, when that amendment, in 
the first section thereof, created a distmet Federal citizenship, as 
follows: 

Article XIV. 

Section 1. All persons bom or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the 
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they 
reside. * * * 

The rights attaching to an American citizen may be divided into 
two classes, that is to say, civil rights and political rights. On the 
ground of public policy, minors, incompetents, and others are fre¬ 
quently denied political rights. The right of suffrage (that is, elective 
franchise, or the right to vote) is a political right which upon the 
grounds of sound public policy and a due regard for the genius of 
our form of government should never be withheld from a class of 
citizens, fairly and in good faith proved to be worthy of possessing 
this right. That the class of citizens deseribed in the above resolution 
(females) has abundantly demonstrated it is eminently worthy of 
possessing such a right, has never been successfully contradicted. 
In determining whether or not a particular class of citizens is entitled 
to the elective franchise the following rules, set down by S. E. Forman, 
Ph. D., in his Advanced Civics (see p. 106), will be found useful, and 
if a class fairly and in good faith meets the requirements of these 
conditions, it is respectfully submitted that the elective franchise 
should be granted to such class. The things to be considered, there¬ 
fore, are as follows: 

1. Will this class of citizens (females) vote whenever the lawful 
opportunity is presented ? 


WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 


7 


2. \\ ill t|iis class of citizens (females) attempt to comprehend the 
questions upon which it votes? 

3. Will this class of citizens (females) attempt to learn something 
of the character and fitness of the persons for whom it votes ? 

4. Will this class vote against dishonest persons for office ? 

5. Will this class oppose dishonest measures? 

6. Will this class refuse, directly or indirectly, to accept a bribe, 
and refuse, directly or indirectly, to give a bribe ? 

7. Will this class place country above })arty? 

8. Will this class recognize the result of the election as the will of 
the people, and therefore as the law ? 

9. Will this class continue to fight for a righteous, although defeated, 
cause so long as there is a reasonable hope of success ? 

10. Is this class of citizens able to read and write? 

11. Does this class of citizens pay taxes ? 

We submit that the class of voters (females) sought to be enfran¬ 
chised by this resolution answers each and everyone of these interrog¬ 
atories with distinguished credit to itself and that it fully, fairly, 
and in good faith measures up to these requirements. 

We therefore, upon all grounds, conclude that the resolution 
should be submitted to the States for their adoption or ratification. 

Subjoined to this report, and made part thereof, will be found a 
memorial of the N^ational American Woman vSuffrage Association, 
being Senate Document No. 519, Sixty-first Congress, second session. 


[Senate Document No. 519, Sixty-first Congress, second session.] 

To the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled: 

Your memorialists, representing the women of the United States desiring the right 
of suffrage and now being represented in national convention, representing nearly 
every State in the Union, respectfully demand the recognition by Congress of the 
right to vote for those women of the United States who possess equal qualifications 
with men in the matter of intelligence or other conditions imposed by the several 
States upon the exercise of suffrage. 

We ask legislation which will provide that no citizen of the United States be denied 
or abridged the right of vote by the United States or by any State on account of sex. 

We ask that an amendment be submitted to the fifteenth article of the Constitution 
of the United States, so that it shall read as follows, to wit: 

“Article XV. 

“Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, coloi*, sex, or pre¬ 
vious condition of servitude.” 

The reasons for our request are as follows: 

(1) The women of the United States are citizens of the United States, entitled by 
nature to an equal right, to enjoy the opportunities of life. 

(2) They perform half the work of the United States. 

(3) They bear all of the children of the United States. 

(4) They educate these children. 

(5) They inculcate in these children lessons of morality, of religion, of industry, of 
civic righteousness, and of civic duty. 

(6) They deserve to be honored by the children of the country as entitled to equal 
dignity and honor possessed by men. 

(7) They pay half of the taxes of the United States. 

(8) They possess half of the property of the United States, or at least they are entitled 
to possess half of the property of the United States by virtue 'of labor performed and 
duty well done. 

Their property and their right to liberty and to life are subject to law. The law 
controls the property rights of women and the_ rights of women to life, liberty, and 



8 


WOMAN SUFFRAGE. 


the pursuit of happiness, and, therefore, we demand the right to a voicB in the election 
of Representatives to write these statutes and to execute them. 

We notify you that the injustice of the past, denying us these obvious rights, will no 
longer be patiently endured. You can not, in the presence of God and with a clean 
conscience, deny the validity of the reasons we present justifying our demand. 

Answer these arguments. 

Answer these sound reasons with a good conscience, and you are compelled to yield 
to the righteous demand of the women of America. 

You well know, as students of history and as students of statecraft, that the ballot 
is the right protective of every other right, and, knowing this, how will you deny 
women equal opportunity to earn equal wages for equal labor? 

Will you suggest that good women will not vote and bad women will vote? This 
most untrue and unkind suggestion has been emphatically and finally answered by 
history, which demonstrates that the same percentage of women vote as men, and 
that the vote of undesirable women is an utterly negligible quantity. That women 
are not to be regarded as bringing to suffrage a preponderance of evil, but that their 
vote has brought to use of the state an important influence in the interest and well¬ 
being of children; new and stronger laws for the protection and advancement of the 
interest of children; new and better laws for the preservation of the public health; 
new and better laws for decency in administration and the beautifying of cities, and 
more worthy candidates by all parties are offered where women vote. 

We demand the right of suffrage because it is justified by every natural right, 
beause it can not be denied by conscientious, thoughtful, studious men who desire 
to deal justly with all human beings alike. We desire these rights in order to raise 
in dignity and power the mothers of this Nation, and for the broader reasons, that 
no nation ever rises higher than the motherhood of the nation, and the welfare of 
this Nation is not promoted by denying to the mothers of the nation the elemental 
right of suffrage which is essential, not only to protect their own rights of life, liberty, 
property, and pursuit of happiness, but to protect their children, whom they have 
so loved, from the treacherous pitfalls that line the pathway of life. 

Very obediently, yours. 


Anna Howard Shaw, 

President of National American Woman Suffrage Association. 

Rachel Foster Avery, 

First Vice President. 


Catherine Waugh McCulloch, 

Second Vice President. 


Mary Ware Dennett, 

Corresponding Secretary. 
Ella Seass Stewart, 

Recording Secretary. 
Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer. 
Laura Clay, Auditor. 

Alice Stone Blackwell. Auditor. 











